


Turns Me to Gold (in the Sunlight)

by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee



Series: Ave Maria [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (before trolling was a thing), F/M, Howard Stark is confused, Mad Man in a Lab Coat, Maria is a troll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:26:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3174886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee/pseuds/DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What have you done to your hair?”</p>
<p>There were good times, when madness was relative and the world was falling apart anyway so why not have a little fun?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turns Me to Gold (in the Sunlight)

“What have you done to your hair?”

            Maria hummed vaguely, not sure she should bother answering Howard.  It had taken him three days to notice the change, after all. The time gap wouldn’t have been statistically significant had they not been living out of military bases and bunkers. One could expect a bit more attention in close quarters. 

            Or not. Howard never was one to follow expectations. 

            “What have you done to your hair?”  Now that he had noticed it seemed to have captured his full attention.  He started unabashedly at her head, tools and bits of machinery forgotten in his hands as he tried to puzzle out this new development. 

            A polite lady would have restrained her smirk at his increasingly disconcerted tone. Then again, a polite lady would have answered his question the moment it was asked.  Maria Carbonell was not a polite lady. 

            “What have you done to your hair?”

            Maria finally turned away from sorting files that really didn’t need extra sorting to direct her full attention at the perplexed genius.  “You realize that Mr. Einstein defined insanity as repeating the same action multiple times in an attempt to induce a different result,” she informed him primly, pursing her lips and tucking herself into an exaggeratedly snobbish pose. 

            Ordinarily Howard would have cracked some sort of joke or tossed some sort of innuendo her way. However, her hair seemed to have sent him into a state of shock from which he had yet to fully recover. “What have you done to your hair?”

            “Mad man in a lab coat,” Maria sang, turning away. 

            “Maria!” he huffed, irritated.

            She paused to favor him with a brief quicksilver smile, “I was bored.  Now I’m blonde.” And then, like any great magician, she vanished. Yes it was through a doorway and not particularly impressive, but a grand exit was everything.

            She could hear Howard’s footsteps trailing after her, providing a staccato rhythm to his questions, “How did you do it? Did you smuggle in the dye?  Did you make it yourself?  How? With what? Maria, slow down!”

            The truth of it was she was bored and restless and far too educated for waiting around and one night she’d snuck down to his lab and mixed up a batch of bottle blonde for herself. She soaked the Italian darkness out of her hair and left behind an airy wisp of a person in its place. She like the new color, the potential, the lightness.  If she could change something as fundamental as her hair, what else could she do?

            And still Howard trailed after her, “Maria!  I have _questions!_ ”

            Those were the good times, the world was on fire and falling around their ears and they were wearing terrible clothes in terrible places doing terrible things, but those were the good times.  Because desperation bred laughter and stupid, simple things were beautiful and moments of foolishness were clutched tight in white-knuckled fingers and never let go.

            _“What have you done to your hair?”_

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title's still a Florence + Machine reference. Bonus points to anyone who either a.) guessed what song it was right off or b.) paid attention to the author's notes for the other two parts of this series and can make an educated guess what the song is.


End file.
